About us

What we do

Land Registry safeguards land and property ownership worth more than £4 trillion, including more than £1 trillion of mortgages. The Land Register contains more than 24 million titles, which show evidence of ownership, covering more than 83% of the land mass.

Anyone buying or selling land or property, or taking out a mortgage, must apply to us to register:

unregistered land or property

any new owner of registered land or property

an interest affecting registered land or property, such as a mortgage, a lease or a right of way

When considering each application, we use the law to decide whether and how it should be registered.

Once land or property is entered in the register, we record any ownership changes, mortgages or leases that affect it. Anyone who suffers loss because of an error or omission in the register, or because the register needs to be corrected, will normally be compensated.

We are committed to carrying out our statutory and commercial business with fairness, openness and honesty. We have policies and procedures to prevent bribery.

Who we are

We are a government department created in 1862. We operate as an executive agency and a trading fund. Our running costs are covered by the fees paid by the users of our services.

We employ around 4,500 people. They work at 14 locations, including our Head Office in Croydon.